The organisation

Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking

The Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) is a €2 billion partnership between the European Union and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) that funds projects advancing competitive circular bio-based industries in Europe.

CBE JU is operating under the rules of Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme, for the 2021-2031 period. The partnership is building on the success of its predecessor, the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), while addressing the current EU policy priorities and challenges facing the industry.

What can CBE JU do for Europe?

Shifting from imports of non-renewable fossil raw materials to circular and local bio-based production processes is essential to reach the EU’s climate targets, boost the continent's competitiveness and strengthen its strategic autonomy. Strong, resource-efficient and competitive bio-based industries are important drivers of this change. By producing renewable bio-based products and materials from waste and biomass in an innovative, sustainable and circular way, they can contribute significantly to the climate neutrality target by 2050 while creating green jobs and sustainable economic growth in regions across Europe.

The role of Circular Bio-based Europe is to bring together various actors from bio-based industries, ranging from farmers to scientists, to solve the technological, regulatory and market challenges of the sector. Its public-private funding scheme boosts innovation and market deployment and paves the way for future investments.

Bringing innovation to the market is a central pilar of European competitiveness. The CBE JU has played a pivotal role in de-risking investments, leading to the scale-up of innovative bio-based solutions.

One of its key strengths is its project portfolio covering the full innovation pipeline, from research (TRL 5) and demonstration (TRLs 6-7) to first-of-its-kind industrial-scale facilities (TRL 8). CBE JU has allocated 80% of its total budget to Innovation Actions, covering scale-up from prototype to product validation and market replication. This is the highest deployment-intensity ratio in the Horizon Europe Joint Undertaking portfolio, with TRLs 6 to 8 covering first-of-their-kind flagship industrial demonstrators.

To date, CBE JU has supported 23 first-of-its-kind facilities and 198 demonstration plants, mobilising EUR 2.5 billion in total investments. Through these projects, CBE JU is strengthening Europe’s biomanufacturing capacity by supporting industrial-scale flagship biorefineries that deliver innovative bio-based solutions across a wide range of sectors. 

In addition, the demonstration plants and first-of-its-kind facilities supported by CBE JU have strong replication potential in other regions and countries, showing that bio-based solutions can be economically viable, socially accepted and replicable across Europe. The CBE JU-funded SWEETWOODS project is a concrete example of this. Its coordinator, Fibenol, has signed a €700 million agreement with the Latvian government to replicate the project's model at a larger scale, building a commercial biorefinery in Latvia.

CBE JU published a comprehensive Synergies Strategy, providing a clear framework for linking CBE JU research and innovation efforts with other funding programmes in order to strengthen the scale-up, deployment and wider uptake of bio-based solutions. The strategy sets out how CBE JU objectives align with other parts of Horizon Europe, including Cluster 6, the EU Missions, the European Innovation Council, and related European Partnerships. It also maps links with other EU funding instruments such as the Innovation Fund, InvestEU and LIFE.

Learn more about CBE JU's contribution to EU policies

CBE JU has demonstrated a clear capacity to structure industrial ecosystems, mobilise actors across sectors and attract private investment for European innovation. This is particularly important in the circular bioeconomy, where scaling up technologies and bringing bio-based solutions to market requires significant capital, industrial cooperation and long-term investor confidence. 

Private investment mobilisation is a core strength of the CBE JU model. CBE JU currently achieves EUR 1.28 of private investment for every EUR 1 of EU funding, exceeding its target of EUR 1-to-EUR 1. This positive performance builds on the results of the BBI JU, which reached EUR 3.65-to-EUR 1 leverage over its lifetime. In higher-TRL demonstration and flagship projects, the leverage effect was even stronger, with EUR 5.20 of private investment for every EUR 1 of EU funding. This track record is the strongest private co-funding performance of any Joint Undertaking in the Horizon Europe portfolio.

This demonstrates that Treaty-based partnerships can generate significant impact where they are designed around clear industrial pathways, public-private cooperation and scale-up-oriented project portfolios. In the case of CBE JU, this helps SMEs and industrial actors validate technologies, develop markets and contribute to European competitiveness, strategic autonomy and the green transition.

At a time of growing pressure on public budgets, the capacity of Joint Undertakings to trigger, attract and retain private investment in Europe should be regarded as a key design feature for the future partnership architecture.

A key strength of CBE JU is its agile programming and stakeholder-informed priority setting. Through close engagement with stakeholders, its annual work programmes reflect industrial reality, strategic policy needs and technological maturity, thereby increasing relevance and potential impact.

With an agile programming process cascading from its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) , to the Multi-Annual Programming (MAP) and ultimately to the Annual Work Programme (AWP), the CBE JU has a resilient alignment mechanism to new and emerging political priorities, and a robust  crisis response framework.  For example, the 2026 AWP strongly aligns with the Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Communication, the Competitiveness Compass, the Clean Industrial Deal, the European Chemicals Industry Action Plan, the Strategy for a Competitive and Sustainable  EU Bioeconomy and the EU Fertiliser Action Plan. 

Several European Commission policy directorates are represented on the CBE JU Governing Board (DG RTD, DG AGRI, DG GROW, and DG ENV) fostering a coordinated and cross-sectoral policy approach. In addition, the CBE JU governance structure, which includes advisory bodies representing the Member States and the scientific community, as well as dedicated deployment groups, is highly inclusive. This supports an essential feature of the Joint Undertaking model whose remit spans multiple industrial sectors and covers the scale-up of innovative bio-based solutions from lab to first-of-a-kind industrial plants. This multi-DG governance structure enables annual work programmes to reflect evolving and emerging policy priorities across research, industry, environment and agriculture, while combining long-term stability with strategic agility.

The Bioeconomy Investment Deployment Group, which strengthens the link between EU strategic priorities, publicly funded innovation and private market deployment, is another best practice example of alignment with strategic priorities. Recommended by the EIB study Scaling up Europe’s bio-based industries and referenced in the new EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the Group was launched in April 2026. Led by the European Commission, BIC and the CBE JU Programme Office, with EIB support, it brings together promotional banks, commercial banks, private equity funds and institutional investors to help build a structured pipeline from JU-funded flagship projects to commercial-scale investment.

CBE JU, and its predecessor BBI JU, have demonstrated a strong structuring and mobilising effect across multiple sectors, enabling projects and value-chain cooperation that would not otherwise have been realised in Europe. By bringing together industry, SMEs, start-ups, research organisations, primary producers, regions and investors, the partnership creates a strong basis for cross-fertilisation and the exchange of knowledge across disciplines and industrial ecosystems. This integrated approach is essential for systemic transitions such as the circular bioeconomy.

CBE JU published a comprehensive Synergies Strategy, providing a clear framework for linking CBE JU research and innovation efforts with other funding programmes in order to strengthen the scale-up, deployment and wider uptake of bio-based solutions. The strategy sets out how CBE JU objectives align with other parts of Horizon Europe, including Cluster 6, the EU Missions, the European Innovation Council, and related European Partnerships. It also maps links with other EU funding instruments such as the Innovation Fund, InvestEU and LIFE.

The strategy also supports the dissemination and use of knowledge generated by CBE JU projects beyond the partnership itself. It helps create pathways for project results, lessons learnt and innovative solutions to be taken up by other initiatives, sectors and funding frameworks. In this framework, CBE JU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with four organisations representing the regional dimension of the bioeconomy. With the overarching objective of supporting the bio-based industries to scale up and replicate results of CBE JU-funded projects, the MoU signatories commit to support SMEs in accessing funding opportunities at national and regional levels. 

CBE JU also organises cluster projects workshops, organised by area of application within the project portfolio. Relevant CBE JU funded projects and projects funded other parts of the Horizon Europe programme (for example Cluster 6, EIC, other partnerships, etc.,) or by other EU programmes (for example the Innovation Fund) as well as EC policy officers, BIC members and other relevant stakeholders are invited to attend and contribute. The overarching aim being to facilitate knowledge sharing and dissemination of information of the work being undertaken within Horizon Europe and across other programmes within in a specific policy field and support the work of in developing a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework.

CBE JU, and its predecessor BBI JU, have been recognised for their structuring and mobilising effect cross multiple sectors in the circular bio-based value chain, including large industry, SMEs, start-ups, research organisations, universities, primary producers and regional actors. This openness is essential in a sector where innovation depends on collaboration across multiple disciplines, territories and stages of maturity.

Since its establishment, the CBE JU programme has continued to grown in attractiveness, with the number of applicants per topic increasing year on year, confirming that the CBE JU has not yet reached saturation point. To date, BBI JU/CBE JU have attracted 4,171 unique applicants to the programme. 55% of all participants to the programme are newcomers - participants who have never received funding from CBE JU nor BBI JU. The CBE JU open participation model for applicants allows any legal entity to apply to calls without paying the private membership fees — the primary structural reason for CBE JU's exceptional openness metrics.

SMEs account for 38% of participation and receive 35% of EU funding, consistently above the Horizon Europe average. 40% of flagship projects are led by SMEs, showing openness extends to programme leadership, not just participation. 

CBE JU’s Widening Participation Strategy is delivering results. The 2025 call for project proposals witnessed participation from widening countries growing more strongly than from other Member States. The KPI target of 150 newcomer participants from underrepresented countries is on track.

Public-private collaboration for a sustainable and competitive Europe

CBE JU is established under Council regulation (EU) 2021/2085 of 19 November 2021 as an institutionalised European partnership between the European Union, represented by the European Commission, and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC). CBE JU is the legal and universal successor of BBI JU in respect of all contracts, grant agreements and liabilities.

The CBE JU’s decision-making body is its Governing Board. The role of the CBE JU Programme Office, led by its Executive Director, is to ensure the implementation of the partnership. CBE JU also has two advisory bodies, the States’ Representatives Group and the Scientific Committee, as well as working and deployment groups.

Learn more about CBE JU’s governance

Funding model

A unique financial model

Joint undertakings like CBE JU provide a common European platform to create deep, long-term collaboration between public and private sectors in their respective fields. Their funding is based on a unique financial model where project beneficiaries match the EU funding with in-kind contributions.  

There are two main types of in-kind contributions:

  • In-kind contributions to operational activities (IKOP): these are costs for staff, equipment and materials incurred by project beneficiaries, and not co-funded by the JU. They audit and report this unfunded part of the projects’ eligible costs to CBE JU. IKOP are calculated as the difference between total eligible project costs and EU contribution depending on the funding rate.
  • In-kind contributions for additional activities (IKAA): these are costs incurred by project beneficiaries in the implementation of additional activities contributing directly to the funded project. CBE JU Governing Board needs to approve such activities in the annual additional activities plan.

Both types of in-kind contributions sum up to significant coordinated investments towards European innovation and industrial ecosystems in the bio-based economy sector.  No single organisation or even country could achieve such scale of projects alone. This is particularly important for small organisations like startups and SMEs, and research organisations who count on in-kind contributions to take part in the bio-based value chains.

SMEs and startups value in-kind contributions to reach industrial deployment

SMEs account for 38% of participants in the CBE JU programme and they coordinate one quarter of all CBE JU-funded projects. Industrial SMEs, including biotechnology ones, are important technology providers in the projects while other small enterprises are involved in a variety of sectors, such as chemicals, food, feed, materials, engineering, construction, waste processing, recycling, plastics packaging, agriculture and aquaculture.

When in-kind replace financial contributions in the projects, small businesses can direct cash flows to critical investments for crossing the second ‘valley of death’ and bringing bio-based innovations to industrial scale. By driving additional activities within and across companies that are linked to the projects, in-kind contributions also incentivise the uptake of innovation outcomes within European industrial ecosystems.

Another benefit of in-kind contributions is training the future workforce for emerging jobs in the European bio-based sector. In many projects, SMEs collaborate with local universities and institutes to develop curricula for graduates and young professionals focussed on the required skills, creating valuable employment opportunities.

Researchers appreciate in-kind contributions for boosting the scale of innovation

Accelerating the innovation process for bio‑based solutions and fostering technology transfer are part of CBE JU's core objectives. Research organisations, representing one‑quarter of all CBE JU participants and one-third of all funding, are key providers of innovative bio‑based solutions for the projects.

For them, in-kind contributions bring in capabilities and expertise at a scale that would otherwise not be accessible, especially in the so-called widening participation countries. Only a substantial in-kind contribution of prototype production by the industrial partners makes the validation of the scientific developments by the academic partners possible. Similarly, industry can also provide unique data for research helping advance innovative solutions. This gives research institutions the opportunity to carry forward challenging large-scale projects bringing research out of the lab and into demonstration, and enables the CBE JU to deliver a programme with larger volume, complexity and systemic approach than other European research programmes.

Aligning public and private resources to scale up innovation in Europe 

The investment environment in Europe is risk-averse. CBE JU mobilises public and private resources to close the innovation gap, de-risk innovative solutions and boost the EU’s competitiveness by enabling complete bio-based value chains across regions. 

Leveraging industry contributions also ensures that R&I investments in the still emerging bio-based sector remain in Europe, fostering EU competitiveness and strategic autonomy. The in-kind contributions are the right tool to guarantee that every euro invested from the EU budget attracts at least equal investments from the private sector without requiring direct financial contributions. This is vital in the current global economic context, in particular for European SMEs. 

In the CBE JU programme, the leverage effect has been much higher. For every €1 of EU funding, BBI JU, the predecessor of CBE JU, mobilised private investments of €3.65, well above the leverage effect target of €2.85. At the higher TRLs, the leverage effect increases: every €1 of EU funding invested in flagship and demonstration projects has attracted approximately €5.2 of private investment. With many projects still at early stages, the CBE JU leverage effect stands at €1.28, higher than the target objective of €1 and well on track to reach the expected programme results.